Roger Howard Phillips MBE

Roger Phillips, and his wife, Nicky Foy, have lived and worked in Eccleston Square since 1974, so his connection with the square dates back 50 years. In 1981 Roger was asked to become the honorary garden manager of Eccleston Square Garden and from that time he stewarded and supervised its development, transforming it from the neglected patch of ‘urban desert’ (his words) it had become after the war, into the wonderful, award-winning, fertile, micro-climate garden it is today. Over the years, apart from being a board member, he was a founding trustee of the garden, successfully fighting off an attempt by the then freeholders to sell the garden to developers, who wanted to build an underground car park beneath it, and eventually succeeding in purchasing the garden freehold for the Garden Company to hold in perpetuity for the benefit of residents.

 

From the moment Roger agreed to take on the management of the garden, in 1981, it was he who oversaw all the gardening and planting for the next 40 years. He preserved the original 1830s Cubitt layout but created new ways of enjoying the garden by making paths through the original beds and by extensive, imaginative, and unusual planting throughout the garden. His aim was to have plants, colours and smells to enjoy all year round, both from inside the garden and for passers-by.

 

The Great Storm of October 1987 initially seemed like a disaster, because it resulted in the loss of a number of 100-year-old plane trees, among others, but Roger saw this as a fantastic opportunity to introduce all kinds of new planting, which would flourish in the increased light that now flooded into the previously shady garden, thus enabling Eccleston Square Garden to develop into the botanical wonder that it is today.

 

Roger’s talents have drawn him in many different directions: from his interest in fungi with his book Mushrooms and Other Fungi of Great Britain and Europe (1981), to a series of botanical identification guides, including Wild Flowers of Britain (1977), Trees in Britain (1978), Wild Food (1983) and Herbs (1987), as well as into collaborating with Martyn Rix on Roses (1988), Shrubs (1989), Bulbs (1989), Perennials (1991), Annuals (1999), among many others, which became key reference books among the cognoscenti of the gardening and horticultural worlds.

​

Gardens occupied much of Roger’s attention in the 1990s and 2000s. His knowledge of the world’s gardens, both famous and obscure, was revealed in A Photographic Garden History (1995), written with his wife Nicky Foy, and in the two volumes of The Botanical Garden (2002), written with Martyn Rix. He generously gave his time to both amateurs and professionals who sought his advice on plants and fungi, including the Prince of Wales whom he visited at Balmoral to identify and discuss the mushrooms on the estate, and was then asked to lunch with the Queen and the Queen Mother in the summer house! But he was just as happy in less grand settings, and he regularly led mushroom-collecting walks, talks and other foraging expeditions for interested professionals and amateurs. Building upon the popularity of Wild Food (1983), of which a revised edition appeared in 2014, he produced The Worldwide Forager in 2020. An updated edition of his renowned identification guide Mushrooms and Other Fungi of Great Britain and Europe had also been published in 2006. New editions of his first two books Wild Flowers and Trees are due to be republished in April 2024 and May 2025, respectively.

​

What made Roger a very familiar name in the British gardening world, with numerous visitors coming to Eccleston Square Garden on National Garden Scheme open days hoping to meet him, were his two television series: the BBC series Quest for the Rose (1993), where he documented the trail of one of his favourite flowers through both geography and time; and the Channel 4 series (1995) The 3,000 Mile Garden, based on letters between Roger and the American cookery writer and gardener Leslie Land, (1995) in which Eccleston Square Garden was featured. One particularly memorable scene was the one in which Roger demonstrated how to slow-cook a ham in the garden compost heap!

​

The garden has been awarded numerous prizes over the years and the plaques are exhibited in the garden conservatory. These, together with the collection of 124 camellias, a National Collection of over 60 different ceanothus, an extensive collection of 150 roses, including climbing roses, tea roses (too tender to be found commonly in British gardens), shrub roses and ramblers, are a testimony to Roger’s dedication to, and passion for, Eccleston Square Garden, for over 40 years. In 2018, a Belgian Rose breeder dedicated a variety of the persica rose to Roger and his collaborator Martyn Rix, called the Phillips and Rix rose, and there are a number of these roses in the garden, with several near the specially commissioned, Portland stone birdbath and bench erected in 2022, to commemorate Roger.

​

In addition to his numerous achievements, Roger brought an infectious enthusiasm and joy in his work to all his endeavours. His characteristic red beret and glasses heralded his almost daily visits in and around the Square Gardens, where he was met with great fondness by residents and locals who could spot him from miles off, and who would often stop to ask him about a plant that they had seen in the garden. He was always happy to share his encyclopaedic knowledge with anyone who was interested in plants, and he will always be remembered with deep affection.